DartmouthSports.com

Jo Ann (Josie) Harper, a prominent figure in collegiate athletics and a highly regarded coach, is Dartmouth's director of athletics and recreation. She assumed the leadership role of Big Green athletics in June 2002.

Harper is Dartmouth's seventh athletic director and the first woman to hold this position both at Dartmouth and in the Ivy League.

In 11 seasons as coach of Dartmouth women's lacrosse, she led her teams to an overall record of 88-69 (37-28 in the Ivy League). She took the women's lacrosse team to Ivy League championships in 1986 and 1987, the ECAC championship in 1988 and to the NCAA tournament in 1983.

A graduate of West Chester University, Harper was prominent as a lacrosse coach at the national and international levels. In 1986, she coached the U.S. World Cup team and in 1982 she assisted with the U.S. team that won the world championship in England.

In November 2006, Harper was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Previously, she was inducted into the New England Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Pennsylvania Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2003 she was inducted into the Sturzebecker Foundation Hall of Fame of West Chester University and in 2004 into West Chester's Athletic Hall of Fame.

Harper is the 2005 recipient of the Katherine Ley Award, presented by the ECAC in recognition of her leadership and advocacy for women coaches and administrators. In 2001 she was honored as the ECAC female athletic administrator of the year. In 2000, Harper was named the National Association of College Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA) Division 1-AA administrator of the year.

Honored by Dartmouth as a "Wearer of the Green" for her achievements in coaching at the national and international level, Harper is an adopted member of Dartmouth's Class of 1947.